IU dance company delights crowds

The African American Dance Company celebrated its 30th year of performances with two packed shows this weekend. The company represented the African diaspora in the United States and throughout the world with a mix of historical and contemporary dance styles.\nFriday's show featured the student dancers performing to a full crowd at the Willkie Auditorium. The dancers in the company are part of A100: African American Dance Company, a two credit hour course through the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies.\n"I have such a wonderful diversity in this dance company from a high school student to Ph.D. students," said AADC Director Iris Rosa, as she introduced the show. "Tonight, the show is all about them."\nThe students danced to traditional -- past and present -- black forms of music, including soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, rap and hip-hop, with a touch of rock 'n' roll and mellow mandarin music. The mood of the dances ranged from smooth and lyrical as in "Stranger in Moscow," to angry and aggressive as in the second half of "Voice of the People." \nAnton LaMon, a sophomore at Bloomington High School North who danced in "Voices of the People," said he doubted the performance during rehearsal, but was very happy with the final product.\nIn addition to the group performances, AADC Associate Instructor Shauna Steele performed a lyrical solo piece, which was also her masters of fine arts audition piece.\nThe featured concert of the weekend was Saturday night at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. It consisted of five short pieces and one long piece, five of which Rosa directed.\n"Our energy was high, and we all danced together tonight," said senior and AADC performer Melike Yetken. \nSaturday's show featured more historical, diasporic dancing styles than the day before, but also had an element of contemporary dance styles. The show opened up with "Pure Movement," consisting of rhythmic African drumming accompanied by a mist and bright lights with pulsing dancing by the entire company. Following this were two softer pieces, including "Deje Mi Pasado" -- a dance about African descendants in the Caribbean. It consisted of Rosa reciting poetry, a dance by Deadra Nelson-Mason Young and featured alumni dancers of the AADC from 1974 to 2004. The second was choreographed by Steele as a dedication to the many Africans who have lost their lives to AIDS. \nOne former performer, Robin Graves, graduated from IU in 1988 and returned to IU Friday to learn the piece for Sunday's show.\n"When you love the arts, you never lose it," Graves said. "Many of us have not danced for 20 years, but we just picked it up." \nAfter intermission, the final piece, "Spiritual Suite: Journey of the Soul," opened with a voice-over of Christopher Columbus narrating, along with lighting and sound effects that helped bring the story to life. Then the dancing started with gospel and soul music, recreating struggles far before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. \nAfter the show, the company \nhonored graduating seniors for their \ncontributions.\n"My college experience would not have been the same without the dance company," Yetken said. \n-- Contact staff writer Benjames Derrick at bderrick@indiana.edu.